"Where else can we go? Of course it's Commander Tang's house. Didn't Axiang tell you? As soon as he heard that you were coming back from Shanghai, Commander Tang immediately called and asked us to come over tonight, saying that he was going to host a banquet for you.
Receive the wind."
"Jie Feng? Ah Xiang didn't tell me!" Li Qiang couldn't help but be startled after hearing this, "This girl must be just enjoying herself and forgetting about business!"
"What makes her so happy?"
"It's nothing. My eldest sister once secretly prepared two boxes of dowry for Axiang. My eldest brother asked me to bring them over before leaving this time."
"Dowry? I didn't expect the Ming family to be so kind to a servant?" Haitang couldn't help but tilted her head and said.
"I would like to say that the eldest sister has never treated Axiang as a servant. The relationship between them is the same as that between the eldest brother and Acheng."
"so good!"
"Why, do you remember that thing again?"
"Yes!" Haitang sighed unconsciously, and then her pretty face turned cold. She suppressed the anger in her heart and said word by word, "Damn Japanese!"
"Begonia..."
"I'm fine, it's just...forget it, it's almost time, we should set off." After saying that, he walked out without looking back.
As night falls, the lanterns come on.
Since Acheng was away, Li Qiang had to borrow stones from Yu Mei to act as his temporary driver.
This is not Li Qiang's pretense. After all, he is also a director. If he doesn't even have a driver when attending such an occasion and has to drive by himself, it will be a lot of fun.
"Director, we are here." After parking the car firmly, Shitou said to Li Qiang through the rearview mirror.
Before he finished speaking, a middle-aged man who looked like a butler who had been waiting at the door immediately came over and diligently opened the car door for Li Qiang and Haitang who were sitting in the back seat.
"Director Ming, Director Gu, my surname is Lu, and I am the housekeeper here. The commander and his wife have been waiting inside for a long time. Please come in with me!"
So the two of them were led into the living room by Butler Lu.
As soon as he entered the living room, he saw Tang Shengming sitting on the sofa, flipping through a book, while Xu Lai was sitting beside him, concentrating on tidying up his nails.
Seeing Li Qiang and Haitang come in, Tang Shengming immediately put down the booklet in his hand, stood up and greeted them enthusiastically: "Oh, tonight's protagonist has finally arrived. Brother Ming, thank you for your hard work. I heard from my wife, you are here this time."
My trip to the Northeast was full of hardships!"
After hearing this, Li Qiang waved his hands repeatedly, "It is my duty as a subordinate to share the commander's worries. I dare not express my sorrow."
"Okay! Brother Ming, there are no outsiders here. You can speak more casually. Don't talk to the commander. The subordinates are short and look too raw. Didn't I tell you? When no one is around, you and I will act like
We are brothers, how come we completely forget about it after a trip to the Northeast?"
"This... okay, brother Ji Li."
"Hey, this is right! Come on, you two, sit down and talk."
But before the two of them could sit down and warm up, Tang Shengming said with a smile: "Tsk, tsk, tsk, it seems that Madam is right, you two are a match made in heaven, a perfect match! To be honest, even I
I can’t wait to drink your wedding wine.”
As soon as these words came out, Haitang's face suddenly turned red, like a ripe apple.
But Li Qiang just frowned slightly and asked calmly: "Brother Ji Li said this, did he hear some rumors?"
"Hey! Brother Ming, as the saying goes, there are many people who are popular, but you have made such a great contribution to the headquarters during your trip to the Northeast. It is inevitable that you will make people jealous!"
After hearing this, Li Qiang suddenly understood why Haitang simply moved to his "Bianzhou".
"A gentleman is magnanimous, and a villain always has a relationship. I just didn't expect that those guys would make a fuss about this kind of thing. It's really hard for them."
Tang Shengming hurriedly said: "Brother Ming, you are flawless in your daily work. Those little people can only make a fuss about this kind of thing. I am disgusting and disgusting to you."
Li Qiang smiled and said, "Let me tell you this! Brother Ji Li, it doesn't matter to us what other people say or think. On the contrary, if we continue to allow this kind of trend to spread in the headquarters, not only will it be damaged.
This is my personal reputation."
"What brother Ming said is true, don't worry, I will make a rule tomorrow to clean up the bad talk of those busybodies!" At this point, Tang Shengming paused, and then said with some reluctance, "But these words
Then again, brother Ming, why don’t you take this opportunity..."
However, before Tang Shengming could finish his words, Li Qiang raised his hand to interrupt him, "Brother Ji Li, it's not that I'm refuting your face, but even if we had planned to get married, we wouldn't get married at this time just because of a few...
Just one rumor can disrupt our original plan."
Although he was rejected, Tang Shengming was not angry. Instead, he smiled and said to Li Qiang: "It turns out that Brother Ming has a plan, so I can rest assured."
With that said, Tang Shengming handed an envelope to Li Qiang.
"What are you doing?"
"Although I have not been in office for a long time, I also know that the salary of everyone in the entire headquarters is not paid by Chairman Wang, but by your brother Ming. If you hadn't tried every means to get the Central Reserve Certificates of Lao Shizi from above,
If converted into U.S. dollars, this headquarters would probably be in a mess like other organizations. So, in order to commend you for your contribution to the suppression of the general, starting from this month, you can draw from your monthly financial balance.
Receive a 10% bonus as a reward."
Li Qiang immediately beamed after hearing this, and without refusing, he gratefully received the envelope containing the huge check.
Only then did Tang Shengming finally heave a sigh of relief.
And Butler Lu also came to report at the right time: "Master, Madam, the food is ready."
Tang Shengming then patted his forehead and said: "Look at me, I was so preoccupied with talking that I almost forgot about the real thing. Come on, come on, you two, hurry up and take a seat!"
During the dinner, under Tang Shengming's deliberate arrangement, Xu Lai and Haitang sat together and chatted very intimately about topics between women.
While cutting the steak in front of him with a knife and fork, he said to Li Qiang casually: "After this period of observation, the headquarters is roughly divided into three factions. One faction is composed of former close associates of Qian Huyi.
Among the elder faction, one is the young faction composed of young backbones who were quickly promoted and appointed after Zhang Zuyin came to power, and the last faction is the neutral faction like Brother Ming."
"What does Brother Ji Li mean?"
"Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to convince you to change your position. In fact, this is the situation I want to see most."
"So, someone wants to break this situation?"
"clever!"
"who is it?"
"Wang Tianxiang!"
"Wang Tianxiang? Since the last time he caught ghosts in Qiuzhuang, hasn't he already become the leader of the veteran faction? Isn't he still dissatisfied?"
After hearing this, Tang Shengming couldn't help laughing and said: "As the saying goes, people's hearts are not as strong as snakes swallowing elephants. With Director Wang's ambition, how can he be satisfied with a small director of the Secret Service?"
"So, is it possible that he is still thinking about the deputy commander?"
"Deputy Commander? Ha!" Tang Shengming sneered, "Maybe even the chair under my butt has been taken care of by him!"
"This...can't be done! To put it bluntly, Wang Tianxiang was a brothel owner before he entered the industry. If you give him the position of director, that's the end of it. He still wants to be the commander, and he doesn't consider how much he has.
Really are……"
"Yes, but then again, how did such wishful thinking come to mind?"
"You mean, who instigated him to do this?"
"This is just my guess, but it is an indisputable fact that he had close contacts with Zhang Zuyin during this period."
"So, you are worried that the elders and the young will merge?"
"Yes, once the two factions merge, won't I be sidelined by them and become a mere commander?"
Li Qiang looked embarrassed after hearing this, "Brother Ji Li, you also know that what I am most afraid of is offending others. Besides, this kind of thing is not my strong point. I am afraid that it will be self-defeating in the end..."
"What are you afraid of? With me supporting you behind your back, at worst, everyone will completely fall apart. When you see who Chairman Wang will help!"
"With your words, I feel much more at ease. Don't worry, I will try my best."
At the same time, the mountain city of Chongqing thousands of miles away.
One day later, Mao Renfeng came to Dai Li's mansion again at night, but this time he was smarter. It wasn't until Miss Chen came out and left in a car that he walked up and knocked on the door of the mansion.
This move naturally made Dai Li very satisfied, so he took Mao Renfeng directly into the study without talking nonsense.
"Tell me, what happened again?"
"A call came from Shanghai Station. The missing Xu Baichuan and Zheng Yaoxian have been found. However, due to their current physical condition, they do not yet meet the conditions for emergency transfer."
"injured?"
"Xu Baichuan was shot in the leg, but I heard that the two of them hid in the sewers for seven days to avoid being pursued by Japanese and puppet spies, and barely survived on a few apples."
"It's not easy. The feeling of starvation is not pleasant!" Dai Li said with emotion after hearing this, "Pass on my words and tell them to cultivate themselves with peace of mind. It won't be too late to come back after they have recovered their health."
"Yes, I understand. In addition, the call from Silver Fox shows that Yang Muchi, the former member of the God of Wealth team, is indeed a spy placed within us by the Red Party, codenamed: Piaofeng."
"Humph! I knew it!" Dai Li was so angry that he slammed the table and said angrily, "Where's that kid?"
Mao Renfeng naturally knew that "that boy" Dai Li mentioned was Li Qiang, and hurriedly replied: "I have returned to Hangzhou and have not found any suspicious behavior."
"Do you think that boy will also..."
"This... I don't dare to make rash judgments in my humble position!"
"No, I have to find a way to try him."
"But boss, that guy just made great contributions to the party and the country and recovered most of the uprising funds that were taken away by Qiu Zhengen. This incident even alarmed Chairman Chiang Kai-shek. At this time, I sent someone to test, I'm afraid there is something wrong.
Is it okay?"
"Well, that makes sense. Qi Wu, you are more thoughtful! Then let's put this matter aside for now and talk about it later!"
"yes!"
…
At this time, although the banquet at the commander's residence had been over for a long time, Li Qiang was not in a hurry to say goodbye and leave. Instead, he chatted with Tang Shengming as if he was waiting for something.
As expected, after chatting casually for a while, Tang Shengming called Li Qiang to the study with an excuse.
As soon as he entered the door, Tang Shengming nodded with great satisfaction and said: "Okay, very good, very good! Brother Ming, since you haven't left, it means that you are not only a smart person, but also very careful. To be honest, you are not
The first one to accept my test, but the only one to pass it. I really lack a trustworthy person like you around me."
As soon as these words came out, Li Qiang immediately replied with sincerity and fear: "Commander, you are overly commending me, and my subordinates are terrified."
This time, Tang Shengming did not correct Li Qiang's title to him, but continued with a smile: "Director Ming doesn't have to be too modest. To be honest, after staying in this officialdom for a long time, I really made two conclusions.
Experience can be regarded as my way of being an official: First, you can't use people without flaws. As the saying goes, 'people are too good to be friends if they have no time'. Think about it, if you don't even have any flaws, who would want to play with you? Who would dare?
Want to play with you? Second, you must also have shortcomings, and you must let your superiors know. It is not enough to have shortcomings, you must also find ways to let your superiors know, so that you can gain the trust of your superiors. Otherwise, why would you get it?
What about trust from superiors? Organizational discipline? Or moral principles? It’s all nonsense! So, you should know what to do now, right?”
"This...I won't be afraid of making fun of you, Commander. My subordinates are neither lustful nor ambitious. The only thing I can't resist is gold, silver and common things."
"Oh?" Tang Shengming couldn't help but asked with interest, "Since you love money, why didn't you just say goodbye and leave?"
Li Qiang smiled and said, "As the saying goes, a gentleman loves money and gets it in a proper way. It is true that my subordinates love money, but they also know that some money can be taken, but some money cannot even be touched!"
"Then how did you determine that the money in the envelope was unreachable?"
"When I return to the commander, although the finances of the ministry are not within the jurisdiction of my subordinates, I know very well the monthly expenses of the ministry. Even if it is only 10%, it is not a small amount, so I
I have a bold guess that the Commander’s move must have a deeper meaning, but I didn’t expect that my subordinates actually guessed it by accident.”
Before he could finish his words, Tang Shengming shook his head and said, "No, this is not a mistake, but because you know what is right and what is right, you can keep it in the end."
With that said, he motioned to Li Qiang to take out the envelope and open it.
Li Qiang naturally obeyed the instructions, but when he opened the envelope, he was surprised to find that what was inside was not a check, but a military grain coupon!